Under One Person: One Person Goes

Chapter 136: What Changes, What Does Not Change

To be frank, human-powered tricycles are just that, and the biggest problem with the whole thing is the mass production of axles and pedal chains.

This problem was not a difficult one for Liang Ting, a great master of mechanical mechanisms and talismans. With his means, he could build a machine tool assembly line that was roughly equivalent to the one used to produce axles and pedal chains, but that was all.

The power of one person is far inferior to that of a mature industrial country. Others can set aside more than a dozen assembly lines to make this, and can produce in one day what Liang Ting's small workshop may need to produce in a year. When Liang Ting made this human-powered tricycle, Wang Yi rejected it immediately. This thing was made by his Sichengjiaohang. As long as the foreigners and compradors saw the business opportunity, it is very likely that their Sichengjiaohang will have to follow behind others and eat dust in the next month, and they won't even be able to drink hot soup.

A good thing for the benefit of the people, in the end it can only become a tool for foreign compradors to make money, and the Sicheng Foot Shop may have to bear the stigma. So Liang Ting bought 20 of them himself, put anti-counterfeiting signs on them, and used them as the signboard of the Sicheng Foot Shop or as a luxury gift to give to others, so as to reduce the presence of this thing in the eyes of foreigners and compradors as much as possible.

But after the farewell that night, Wang Yi also realized that the old general could not die so suddenly next year, and he also needed to deepen his relationship with the old general. In this case, the previously sealed human-powered tricycle would be useful.

Because the old marshal is not only backed by the Japanese, but also has connections with capital from other powerful powers.

We can't compete with the big powers in industry at the moment. Okay, we can take the loss, and you can take the technology. But if you want to expand the market in China and have pricing power, you have to ask the boss behind me.

This is also the most important point that Mr. Li taught him, to use the tiger's skin.

The old marshal, who is now strong and in a strong momentum, is his first tiger skin. Although everyone is not optimistic that the Beiyang faction represented by the old marshal can win, even if he loses, he can just go back to the outside of the Great Wall. It is still the same that he has the final say. If the foreigners and compradors want to make money in China, at least now they will not think about offending the old marshal and putting everything in his mouth, because he really has guns and people.

You store food, I store guns. Your home is my granary. The old general understands this principle best.

Through Wang Yi's explanation, the old marshal probably understood that if this rickshaw was endorsed by him and deployed in the capital, it would soon squeeze out the current rickshaw market in the capital. As long as he set a fixed price, he could make money from the foreign compradors and himself, and it would not become a luxury item. Apart from anything else, a lot of people in the capital would remember his kindness, and maybe when he stepped down in the future, he could save some capital for himself. Even if he didn't need it, it could pave the way for his son.

The old man may not understand business, but he can understand the benefits. As for how to set prices, he doesn't understand, and neither does his son, but his daughter-in-law does. All he has to do is stand up and endorse, it's that simple.

Wang Yi also met the young marshal's wife, who was also considered a remarkable woman of that era.

She is indeed worthy of this title. Without his legal wife, the young marshal would not have been able to live such a carefree life in the second half of his life.

The young marshal's wife did see the market from the design drawing of the human-powered tricycle that Liang Ting took out. The market is huge, so huge that as long as the old marshal endorses it, once these human-powered tricycles with the old marshal's name on them leave the factory, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai will definitely be able to take them up, and there may even be a shortage of supply.

With his daughter-in-law making the final decision, the old general had no objection. He accepted the big business that Wang Yi brought to his door. As for the specific plan, he needed his daughter-in-law to talk to the foreigners he knew before he could give Wang Yi an answer.

"Young Master Wang Yi, I like you more and more. You are young, but you are quite capable. Your vision is better than many people, and you have many capable people under you. Liang Ting, right? Are you interested in becoming the director of my arsenal?"

A private banquet, gained a powerful thug like Wang Yi, and a big business. The old commander also noticed the plain-looking Liang Ting beside Wang Yi. He also had Liang Ting's information, but he really didn't expect that a grandmaster of mechanical devices and talismans could make a human-powered tricycle. It was like using a howitzer to fight the underworld. For a moment, he couldn't help but want to poach Wang Yi in front of him. After all, the information said that Wang Yi and Liang Ting were not so-called superiors and subordinates, but more like friends.

"Thank you for your kindness, Marshal. I am just a man of few tricks, but I have never come into contact with anything like this kind of hot weapons. I have my share of expertise, and I dare not ruin the Marshal's hard work."

"It's okay, we can just take a look. Well, we're almost done with dinner. I promise that this business won't let Young Master Wang Yi's Sicheng Freight Company suffer any loss. You may even have to change the name of your freight company to Sicheng Freight Company. I'll discuss this with my daughter-in-law. Liuzi, you can give them a ride."

"Thank you for your kind words, Master. I know my own weight and I can just drink the soup in equal parts. Master, you still have to pay attention to the price. I, Wang Yi, don't want to be criticized by the people in the capital."

"I don't want to either."

After some polite exchanges, the young marshal saw Wang Yi and Liang Ting off from the marshal's residence.

On the way back, Wang Yi suddenly said, "Brother Liang, aren't you curious?"

"I'm not curious, because you would never do anything harmful to ordinary people."

"Well, actually I am also gambling. We can't turn this thing into money no matter what we do. But what we need most right now is money. We can only bet that the old man will cherish his reputation."

"I know. Are you planning to go outside the Great Wall with the old commander? I'll go with you too."

"Ok?"

"Arsenals are good things, and guns are even better things. You have to know how to make these things by hand. Having them is one thing, and being able to make them is another. What makes me better than them is not efficiency, but this."

Liang Ting pointed to his forehead, and a confident smile appeared on his face that could stop a child from crying. "Brother Liang, thank you very much."

"Do we need to talk about this between you and me?"

"That's true."
-
Days passed one by one. After a period of seclusion to calm his inner demons and seeing Mr. Li off and delivering the letter on his behalf, Wang Yi never left the capital again throughout the 16th year of the Republic of China.

Just as Mr. Li told Wang Yi before his death, the general trend cannot be changed, and there is no need to change it.

Wang Yi couldn't change anything about what happened later on by himself, so he just stayed in the capital and read the newspapers to see if the last letter Mr. Li sent out could bring about any changes.

At the end of May in the 17th year of the Republic of China, the outstanding general with the same surname as the bald man returned to his hometown to avoid disaster and take care of his wife who had been pulled back from the brink of death with great difficulty. His adjutant Zhang Yi temporarily took over his position.

Adjutant Zhang Yi, this is a name that Wang Yi is familiar with, especially after the newspaper published a photo of this person after successfully capturing the city, Wang Yi knew who he was even more.

They were the pair of extraordinary brothers that he met in Fujian in the 14th year of the Republic of China.

I didn't expect that this pair of brothers would really listen to my words, join the Northern Expedition, and obviously stand on the right side.

"It seems that we have saved the person we wanted to save. She shouldn't have died here. As for his wife, well, Zhang Yi and Ma Feng, a pair of brothers who practiced martial arts and were well versed in pharmacology, should have discovered that she was seriously ill and sent her to the hospital immediately, which prevented her from being left with no cure later, haha..."

Wang Yi was quite happy that day. At least he knew that he had accomplished something since he came to this era, so he didn't have so many regrets.

The days that followed were very dull, because apart from this small episode, what happened afterwards was pretty much the same, and it was impossible for Wang Yi to know every detail and understand how much of these pretty much the same things had changed and how much had not changed.

After nearly two months of discussion, the Fengtian brand human-powered tricycles, endorsed by the old marshal and funded by foreigners to set up a factory and sold by Sichengjiaohang, appeared in this era almost ten years ahead of schedule.

Sichengjiaohang was therefore renamed Sicheng Logistics Company. The young boss Wang Yi had no choice but to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony and take photos.

Looking at the photos hanging in the study, Wang Yi knew that he could not avoid becoming a part of this era, and he didn't know whether it was good or bad.

In this ceremony, Wang Yi represented the Sicheng Logistics Company, which held the least shares, only 10%, and the rest was shared between the old commander and the foreigners. But the profit from this 10% share was enough to make Sicheng Logistics Company a giant in Beijing, because he had the old commander behind him, plus his own abilities, and the prestige of defeating the eight foreigners in the embassy before, everyone had to give Wang Yi some face.

Even Master Qin, who had been helping him from behind, was repaid by the old commander by being promoted to the position of president of the Beijing Chamber of Commerce.

When this news spread to the circle of extraordinary people, some sighed, while others were amazed.

Most of those who sighed were from the older generation of Xuanmen, who did not understand why a younger generation with such outstanding talent had to roll around in the secular world. Most of those who were amazed were from the younger generation of Xuanmen, who had more or less seen or heard the story of Wang Yi, a man of the same age, competing with Zhang Zhiwei from Longhu Mountain at the birthday banquet of the Lu family.

They were somewhat envious of their peers for being able to make a career at such an age. Some young people were also eager to go to Beijing and do something with Wang Yi.

As for Wang Yi himself, he finally understood the saying that a person's success depends not only on his own efforts... He really became the pig standing on the wind.

But the laws of nature are constant; they do not exist for the sake of Yao, nor do they perish for the sake of Jie.

On Mount Longhu, Zhang Zhiwei, who had gone down the mountain many times and left the territory of Mount Longhu, did not go down the mountain again. He took over the responsibility of his master and continued to teach on his behalf. However, the senior masters and disciples on Mount Longhu also clearly felt that this senior brother who had always followed his own ideas seemed to have changed. When teaching, he paid more attention to his words and deeds and was more concerned about their feelings.

Old Heavenly Master Zhang Jingqing saw this, but instead had a headache. Because the hexagram he got from divination made him unable to determine whether the transformation of his eldest disciple was good or bad, so he could only focus on another disciple he taught, Lin Huaiyi, to see if he could see any clues from the competition he arranged after the New Year.

The Sanyi Sect, which is also located in Xuanmen like Mount Longhu, also added three more lessons in this year in addition to the three levels of reverse life: shrinking the earth into an inch, drawing a line on the ground to make a prison and dividing the river into land.

Under the personal guidance of the sect leader Zuo Ruotong, he also discovered that these three methods could help disciples who entered the second level of the Reverse Life to deepen their progress in the third level of the Reverse Life, which was good news. After all, in the entire Sanyi Sect, there was a huge gap between Zuo Ruotong's progress in the second level and other disciples. This gap was due to both age and actual combat.

The world is in such chaos now, and it is not convenient for Zuo Rutong to let his disciples go down the mountain. It is indeed good news that even if the mountain gate is closed, he can still use these three methods of protecting the way to consolidate his second level.

Just like that, the 16th year of the Republic of China, a year without too many disturbances in the circle of extraordinary people but full of changes for the world, just passed.

(End of this chapter)